Purge of top Chinese general throws military into turmoil
Daily News Article — Posted on January 28, 2026
NOTE: China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) is the supreme national defense organization and the highest command body overseeing all Chinese armed forces, including the PLA (People’s Liberation Army), navy, air force, rocket forces, and armed police. It acts as both a Communist Party and state organ, with Xi Jinping serving as Chairman.
(NBC News) BEIJING — The downfall of China’s top general, second in command and once a close ally of President Xi Jinping, has thrown the leadership of the country’s military into turmoil and raised questions about Taiwan’s future.
The Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement Saturday that Gen. Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which controls the armed forces, was under investigation and accused of serious “violations of discipline and law.”
Liu Zhenli, another People’s Liberation Army (PLA) general and a lower member of the commission who was in charge of the Joint Staff Department, was also put under investigation, the ministry said.
The statement gave no details about the allegations or the charges they faced. An editorial Sunday in the Liberation Army Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the country’s armed forces, suggested that Zhang, 75, was accused of corruption and possibly disloyalty to Xi.
Zhang and Liu, it said, “seriously trampled on and undermined” the system of responsibility under the military commission’s chairman — Xi himself. The pair had also “gravely fostered political and corruption problems that weakened the Party’s absolute leadership over the military,” it said, adding that that had “caused immense harm” to China’s combat readiness.
Asked about Zhang at a regular briefing of reporters in Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson cited unfamiliarity with the matter. The page with Zhang’s biography on the PLA’s official website has been pulled down, suggesting he may have fallen out of favor.
Zhang was previously considered “untouchable,” according to Alessandro Arduino, an expert in Chinese security at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.
“This is a reminder coming directly from President Xi Jinping that political loyalty stands well before combat readiness,” he said in a telephone interview Monday. “Political disloyalty is a cardinal sin inside the party. And the message is clear: It’s a political accusation. I think the message is extremely clear: No one is safe.”
Xi could have let Zhang, 75, retire to save face, he said, adding that that was “very important in China.” Instead, Xi had allowed “a huge political accusation” to be leveled against his longtime ally, Arduino said.
China’s military has undergone a sweeping anti-corruption purge in recent years, in which People’s Liberation Army generals, admirals, government ministers and other officials have been removed from their posts.
Since he came to power in 2012, Xi has launched a variety of anti-corruption drives through various government departments.
More recently the focus has been on the armed forces. In October, the ruling Communist Party expelled He Weidong, the other vice chair of the military commission, and replaced him with commission member Zhang Shengmin. And in 2024, the party expelled two former defense ministers over corruption charges.
But some analysts see the removal of Zhang, a longtime confidant of Xi and a combat veteran of China’s 1979 conflict with Vietnam, as the most significant ouster yet, one that will create a major upheaval at the top of China’s military power structure. …
Of the six generals Xi appointed to the commission in 2022, only one is left, allowing Xi to consolidate power but also heightening the risk of a military miscalculation when it comes to Taiwan, according Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London.
“Removing generals like Zhang means that there will not be any general who would dare to advise Xi against a military adventure when the time comes, and this increases the risk of a miscalculation,” he said in an email Monday.
Xi has long harbored ambitions of reuniting Taiwan, the self-governing democracy of 23 million people, with China, and his military regularly launches live-fire drills around the island, featuring aircraft and warships. [China claims democratic Taiwan is a breakaway province, but Taiwan says it is a sovereign state, with its own constitution, military, and elected leaders].
Officials in Taipei are closely watching what they have called “abnormal” changes to China’s military leadership and will use a range of methods to decipher Beijing’s intentions, Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Monday.
“Xi will not order an invasion unless he is certain of victory, but no general will now dare to advise caution if Xi asks: ‘Is the PLA now ready to liberate Taiwan for the greater glory of China?’” Tsang said, adding that the world was “less safe” after Zhang’s removal.
Arduino of the Royal United Services Institute echoed that view, saying Zhang was one of the oldest high-ranking commanders who fought in the war against Vietnam, “so he knows very well what it means to wage a war, compared to the majority of the PLA that are just training to be combat ready.”
His successor “will show what is going to look like a PLA that is first and foremost politically aligned with the party and, by definition, with President Xi himself,” he said.
Published at NBC News on Jan. 26, 2026. Reporting by , and . Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.
Background
U.S. Relationship with Taiwan:
The U.S. has full diplomatic ties with China but is also committed, under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, to an unofficial relationship with Taiwan and to help the island defend itself against any unprovoked aggression. Congress intended for the Taiwan Relations Act to preserve a relationship with a traditional ally of the United States after President Jimmy Carter decided to transfer diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
How Taiwan became what it is today:
In 1895, military defeat forced China to cede Taiwan to Japan. Taiwan reverted to Chinese control after World War II. Following the Communist victory on the mainland in 1949, 2 million Nationalists fled to Taiwan and established a government using the 1946 constitution drawn up for all of China. Over the next five decades, the ruling authorities gradually democratized and incorporated the local population within the governing structure. In 2000, Taiwan underwent its first peaceful transfer of power from the Nationalist to the Democratic Progressive Party. Throughout this period, the island prospered and became one of East Asia’s economic “Tigers.” The dominant political issues continue to be the relationship between Taiwan and China – specifically the question of eventual unification – as well as domestic political and economic reform. (from the CIA World FactBook.)
The following is excerpted from an article at RFE/RL:
A January 25 editorial published in the army newspaper Liberation Army Daily said Zhang and Liu "seriously betrayed the trust and expectations" of the Communist Party and the CMC (Central Military Commission) and "fostered political and corruption problems that undermined the party's absolute leadership over the military and threatened the party's ruling foundation."
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with a high-level internal briefing about the allegations, reported that Zhang was accused of leaking information to the United States about the country's nuclear weapons program and accepting bribes in exchange for promotions to top military roles. RFE/RL has not been able to independently corroborate the report.
Some analysts say they're skeptical of the intelligence leak claims. Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at the Asia Society...questioned them in a post on X, asking why a "battle-hardened general" like Zhang would "betray everything that gave his life meaning for the last few decades" to pass secrets to China's top rival.
Like President Xi Jinping, Zhang, a member of the party's elite Politburo, is one of China's "princelings," as the descendants of revolutionary elders and high-ranking party officials are known. Zhang's father fought alongside Xi's father during the Chinese civil war that led to Mao's Communist forces seizing power in 1949, and both men later rose to senior roles.
Analysts say Zhang's removal could affect China's military readiness and future ambitions toward Taiwan. Xi has repeatedly called unification with the island as "unstoppable" and vowed to take the island by force if necessary.
At the end of 2025, China launched some of its biggest military drills around Taiwan so far and China regularly sends jets and ships into Taiwan's airspace and waters to test its resolve.
Drew Thompson, a former Asia strategist at the Pentagon...said that the purge also raises implications for Taiwan and the United States, which is Taipei's main backer and provides it with vital military support.
"For a US deterrence strategy to be effective we need Xi Jinping to be surrounded by competent generals who will give him objective advice," Thompson wrote.
Thompson said Xi's consolidation of the Central Military Commission (CMC) comes with "operational risks of Xi being advised by and trying to command a million-man army through a one-man committee" and that he worries "about the consequences of someone other than Zhang Youxia providing Xi Jinping with military advice."
"Without Zhang Youxia on the CMC, the risk of miscalculation goes up," he added.